- The conservative editor of a major newspaper, Dennis Luxford, receives a ransom demand: publish the details of his first-born child or else. Some years earlier, he had a weekend tryst with a left-wing politician, Eve Bowen, now a government Minister and by mutual agreement his paternity has never been publicly acknowle…
- While attending an anniversary party at his superior officer's house, Lynley is given the task of investigating the death by car of a woman. He and Havers think it odd that he is given the case, but doggedly pursue the truth. The woman was the mother of a gifted violinist who mysteriously abandoned his concert just at …
- Lynley and Havers are sent to a small village in East Anglia to investigate the murder of an interior designer who was shot inside the house but her body was deliberately moved outside. As the investigation proceeds they discover that the dead woman's sister was raped and committed suicide fifteen years earlier and the…